As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Need help w/2-yr-old dining
Going to DW 12/23-26, first time for our 2-yr-old son. He loves Mickey, Donald, Chip and Dale, Ariel, Belle, Nemo, etc., but no concept of Disney World (he's a young 2). On arrival day, we are checking into WDW Hilton, walking over to DD Disney that afternoon (probably T-Rex lunch - name is on PS list), then need dining for that evening. We're planning on doing our one park day on Christmas Eve - MK - so staying out late is not something we're dying to do, since I imagine we need to get to the park early in the morning on Christmas Eve before it closes for capacity. Only Character Dining we have planned so far is Sunday morning Character Breakfast at the WDW Hilton.
Dining options for which I have ADRS:
Whispering Canyon Café - 6:15 pm (I know it is loud and no characters)
Jiko – The Cooking Place - 6:20 pm (adult, but don't they do fun stuff in the lobby/rock outside in the late afternoon/evenings?)
1900 Park Fare - 6:40 pm (too girly for a little boy? He likes pretty girls.)
Chef Mickey's - 8:05 pm (too late at night? Might we wait for a long time and then get back to the WDW Hilton ridiculously late?)
Final thought was driving to Ft. Wilderness, letting him go on a pony ride, doing the 5 pm Hoop-Dee-Doo seating (still available), then heading over to the campfire for Chip and Dale's singalong.
Anyway, so any thoughts about the appropriateness of these venues for a 2-yr-old boy, the likely wait times w/ADRs, the actual character face time, the yuckiness of the food (we're okay with mediocre if it means characters and/or fun but would like it to be edible), and the difficulty of getting to and from these locations with a car from the WDW Hilton.
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I don't know if you are doing Epcot, but Garden Grill is fabulous for Chip and Dale, Mickey and Pluto.
FYI - 1900 PF also has the prince and the step mother and step sisters who REALLY play the part well... the mom looking quite mean in a funny kind of way.
We had dinner at Jiko last December and there wasn't any kind of entertainment.
You've not mentioned whether your son likes Pooh and the gang. Crystal Palace is a great MK option. Good food, service and a lot of fun.
Thanks for the reply - not doing Epcot or any other part of Disney. Plan is to let him do toy shopping and Santa photo DD day of arrival, MK Christmas Eve, swimming and playing with presents Christmas Day at hotel (he's a born water baby and will swim in the heated pools for hours), and then Character Breakfast morning of departure. Given that he's a young two, plus we'll have his grandmother (active but still in her sixties) who is paying for the whole thing, we are trying not to over-do anything but still give him a good time.
I would really like to do Crystal Palace but can't get ADRs at any point on Christmas Eve, our day in the park. I'll keep trying, however. Do have sit-down ADRs for lunch that day, but no character dining, and it seems that otherwise there aren't ADRs for breakfast in MK other than Cinderella and Crystal Palace? Was planning on Main Street Bakery.
Have Narcoossee's ADR Christmas Eve and Artist Point ADR Christmas Day - he's pretty well-behaved at meals for a two-year-old as long as the iPad is there - so we have our adult meals set, and he'll be in heaven while we're waiting looking at the Christmas decorations.
I think your decision should also consider how ready your son is to meet the characters. They are so much bigger in real life than on the screen --- do you thnk he'll freak out that Mickey Mouse is actually 6 feet tall and not 30"?
Personally, I think 8:00 is really late for dinner and you don't want to risk having a cranky, overtired party for your one and only day in the park the next day. So, I'd rule out Chef Mickeys.
I'd be inclined to do something that gives your son an "easy entry" into the World. So either 1900 Park Fare or the Hoop Dee Doo would get my vote. Of course, I've been to neither but compared to the loud WCC, those seem like your best bets for fun character interactions and better timing for your family.
I know Hoop Dee Doo doesn't have characters, but the show is supposed to be lots of fun and good ol' slapstick comedy, which I think appeals to a 2 year old's humor.
Good luck with your decision and with securing your ADRs! Hope your son has a wonderful first visit to Disney! And happy holidays, too!
Carol
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DS-almost 3 & DD-6 with Meeko & Pocahontas in 2012
DH, "Commando" (Let's get a move on, folks!) ~ Me, "Pokey" (Just a moment...Look at this cool trinket!) ~ DD, born 4/2005, "Ride! Ride! Ride!" (Roller coaster! Cars! Dumbo!) ~ DS, born 3/2009, "Charge!" (I wanna goooooo!)
My daughter's fav meal at 2 years old was the Crystal Palace, and Tusker House in the Animal Kingdom. But, as you say you're only visiting MK and CP is booked, I would go with 1900 PF out of the ones you have. DD liked it, but she didn't love it - she greatly prefers the costumed characters to the "face" characters. Another good option might be Cape May Cafe character breakfast at the Beach Club resort. Just speaking from experience, DD sits much easier through character meals than regular meals (she's 3 now) - like your little one, she normally sits well through even the nicest meals, but at Disney, things are much too exciting, and we have a hard time getting her to sit long enough to have a "regular" meal.
Also, is this your first trip to WDW? Just wanted to remind you that with 3 sit-down meals a day, you will spending a LOT of time just eating. You may be aware of that and comfortable with it, but since you are going to be there on some of the busiest days of the year, I just wanted to mention that, especially since you have several Signature meals booked (those can take 2 hours or more), that you probably won't be able to actually see very much.
I'd agree with the other's and recommend 1900 Park Fair. My 2.5-yr old daughter took the entire week we were there to warm up to "dressed" characters. And even then only really liked Mickey & Minney. the face characters were much easier.
My boys did 1900 PF once because they were traveling with a cousin who is a girl and they actually had a really good time. The stepsisters were so much fun.
They also really liked HDDR and the sing-a-long at that age. Chip and Dale were so much fun. And they loved roasting marshmellows.
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